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I recently priced up tickets from San Franisco to Sydney, and it was more than double the cost of Sydney to San Francisco. In fact, I priced up dates that inclu
by timcederman 8y ago
I recently priced up tickets from San Franisco to Sydney, and it was more than double the cost of Sydney to San Francisco. In fact, I priced up dates that included my original itinerary, and it was cheaper to buy two tickets originating in Australia.
- thaumasiotes 8y agoAs far as I know, It's hard to arbitrage this because the 21st-century tightening of airline "security" means you'll be rejected from a later leg of your flight if you weren't on an earlier leg. Have you tried actually booking the two trips out of Australia and only taking the last half (Sf -> Sydney) of the first one?
- timcederman 8y agoIt's impossible to do, I was just making sure it wasn't a quirk for the dates I was looking at.
- wahern 8y agoIIRC airlines were already prohibiting that before 9/11. Security is just a convenient excuse. Similarly, once upon a time you could arrive at the airport 5 minutes before the flight, frantically check-in at the counter[1], and race to your gate while the check-in counter phoned the gate to ask them to hold the door (at the pilots discretion). That kind of stuff causes delays and the airlines were already putting policies in place to stop that before 9/11. If you arrive late today they'll simply tell you that you missed the 30 minute window imposed by the TSA to ensure proper inspection procedures, but in the absence of the TSA rules the same policy would almost certainly have existed anyhow. Market competition forced airlines to more efficiently manage gate resources, and random passengers boarding at the last minute can be extremely costly. [1] I forgot to add: check-in baggage might either be sent through the system (urgently) or you might check it in at the gate. These days I think you can still arrive inside the 30 minute window if you don't have any check-in baggage, but don't expect any courtesies.
- ubernostrum 8y agoIn the old old days there were some flights you could board and then pay the fare on the plane, in cash. The original Eastern shuttle service on the east coast did that in the 1960s, for example.
- moltar 8y agoAnd in those same days you didn’t even need a passport. It was just like buying a bus ticket. Also, smoking was allowed. Now seems so bizzare.
- Simon_says 8y agoThat must have been so miserable for the tiny fraction of people who didn't smoke.
- workinthehead 8y agoWhy? They would have already been dealing with it in every other public space.
- cookiecaper 8y agoThere were, in fact, entire airports designed around the "pull up, run in, board plane" routine. Kansas City International entered service right around the time that hijacking commercial flights became a popular publicity stunt. The consequent installation of security checkpoints really harmed the airport's utilitarian vision, and TSA's post 9-11 sterile area rules made travel through KCI a complete farce. Nowadays, KCI has got to be one of the most hated airports in the country. I've met several people who've come away with a true and real disgust for Kansas City after being "trapped" in a five-gate sterile span with 200 people, a juice cart, and a bathroom. Exiting that small enclosure necessitates another pass through security. It's a sad story, and may be a good case study for why one shouldn't try too hard to optimize that next project.
- mFixman 8y agoOn the other hand, online check-in makes it so you can arrive to the airport ~30 minutes before an international flight if you don't carry any luggage, which is extremely convenient.
- karthikb 8y agoValue based pricing. More willingness to pay for ex-US fares than from anywhere else in the world.
- useful 8y agoIt's not value, airlines price on yield.
- kenneth 8y agoThis isn't related to the carrier-imposed surcharges, however. Airfare is priced according to a system of filed fares with specific rules, for specific city pairs, that require booking into specific "inventory." Internationally, round-trips and different fares than one-ways. And SFO-SYD is a different fare altogether from SYD-SFO. A fare might say: - Originates in SFO, destination SYD - Books into economy class - Requires S-code inventory - Requires a round-trip - Can be combined on a half-round-trip basis with any other fare USA-Australia fare (e.g. you could combine two fares SFO-SYD and NYC-MEL to get a SFO-SYD/NYC-MEL round trip) - Can use any flights that have S-code inventory - Except no stopovers - And only 1 transfers in Area 1 (USA) - Can be reissued for 400 USD With that fare, you can then build an itinerary from segments (flights) that match all requirements of the fare.
- timcederman 8y agoHow is this different to the first example in the article? > They aren’t tied to distance traveled—fees are often the same for flights from Europe to New York and Los Angeles. They vary wildly by direction of travel. Business-class tickets on British Airways between New York and London have a $1,006 carrier-imposed charge if the round-trip begins in New York, but only $381 if the round trip originates in London.
- namdnay 8y agoThe article was discussing extra fees tacked on to FQTV tickets
- theoh 8y agoPasting blockquote, sigh. - Originates in SFO, destination SYD - Books into economy class - Requires S-code inventory - Requires a round-trip - Can be combined on a half-round-trip basis with any other fare USA-Australia fare (e.g. you could combine two fares SFO-SYD and NYC-MEL to get a SFO-SYD/NYC-MEL round trip) - Can use any flights that have S-code inventory - Except no stopovers - And only 1 transfers in Area 1 (USA) - Can be reissued for 400 USD
- megy 8y agoAirlines charge a maximum of what people will pay, or try to, and still fill the seats.
- namdnay 8y agoThe best example of this is BA pricing for business flights departing going through LHR. E.g. FRA-LHR-DFW is very competitively priced (to undercut LH) - on average 2800E return, however the exact same LHR-DFW return flight is nearly twice the price!